Xbox Series X/S & Playstation 5 (PS5) Thread. Next-Gen 2020

[Misfit]

I think its an odd thing to launch without a system selling game - I find it hard to imagine that Nintendo would ever do that. Running older games at a slightly better rez or frame rate doesnt make me think lets spend 400 quid plus...

Both those designs are ugly stick bad too....I know I am sounding negative but I am sure shortly there will be something to pull me over - Could already be here with Last Guardian at 60 FPS actually

The Last Guardian on PlayStation 5 runs at 60fps - but only if you have the disc.

Agreed, but like I said, it's like upgrading your PC. You upgrade it and Windows etc is all the same, just everything is better when you play the games.

And spending £450 to upgrade your PC wouldn't get you anywhere near what you get in a One X so there will be people keen on the move (See MattyP above!).

Also I don't think MS care too much if you buy a new console (the profit margin must be slim to none on them). They're placing their bets on the future being subscription-based. They want you to buy Game Pass and play on any system either an Xbox or steaming.

Not sure there is anything killer for the PS5 on day one that you can't get on the PS4, although Spiderman with raytracing looks lovely (but you have to drop to 30fps mode to have it).

Except for Astro, which does look LOVELY and very clever. Not surprising when you think the VR Astro game is one of the best out there. I'm sure visually a PS4 pro wouldn't be far off on that type of game, but having seen what it does with the Dual Sense controller takes it to another height. But also makes me think it will be wasted on developers. especially if a game is cross-platform.

Shame the PS5 is going away until Xmas as I'm quite excited by this one.

[Misfit]

Oh, and a note on Game Pass.

EA's subscription stuff was added today, so it's got a TON more content.

Now 346 console games on it!

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-pass/games

And I've had a lot of fun with the new additions this month including:

Carto - Cute indie wander around the world puzzle game
Knights and Bikes - Quirky adventure from part of the Media Molecule team that did Little Big Planet/Tearaway
Eastshade - Relaxing very pretty first-person adventure where you are a travelling artist painting the world.
Unruly Heroes - 2D sidescrolling adventure/beat em up
Katana Zero - 2D ultra-violent side scroller with puzzle/rewind time elements.
Deep Rock Galatic - Very fun co-op fps and I don't much like fps games

Plus I want to dip back into Day of the tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.

At least it will all now load faster for me!

[MattyP]

Except for Astro, which does look LOVELY and very clever. Not surprising when you think the VR Astro game is one of the best out there. I'm sure visually a PS4 pro wouldn't be far off on that type of game, but having seen what it does with the Dual Sense controller takes it to another height. But also makes me think it will be wasted on developers. especially if a game is cross-platform.

Thing that always frustrates me about the Sony controllers is they bring a showcase demo out for all the features (Astrobot for example). Then we hardly ever see anything implemented as well going forward. Hopefully we'll see some good use of the unique features of the PS5 controller this time!

Yes my choice for a Series X was a way to experience games at the same level without having to spend £1K upwards on my PC. Also all the games will be optimised for the Xbox architecture anyway as its a known thing. Always feel the PC is underutilised at times or software isn't written as well as it could be so not very well optimised with the expectation you just upgrade hardware. Saying that a PC build is lasting longer and longer these days. My current GPU is 5 years old and still runs pretty much everything at 1440p 60fps. Impressive really... Guess this is due mainly because the last batch of consoles were so underpowered in respect to your average PC setup.

[MattyP]

Oh, and a note on Game Pass.

EA's subscription stuff was added today, so it's got a TON more content.

Now 346 console games on it!

https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-pass/games

And I've had a lot of fun with the new additions this month including:

Carto - Cute indie wander around the world puzzle game
Knights and Bikes - Quirky adventure from part of the Media Molecule team that did Little Big Planet/Tearaway
Eastshade - Relaxing very pretty first-person adventure where you are a travelling artist painting the world.
Unruly Heroes - 2D sidescrolling adventure/beat em up
Katana Zero - 2D ultra-violent side scroller with puzzle/rewind time elements.
Deep Rock Galatic - Very fun co-op fps and I don't much like fps games

Plus I want to dip back into Day of the tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.

At least it will all now load faster for me!

Knights and Bikes is amazing fun! Love Double Fines work anyway. The LucasArts remasters are also a welcome addition... Day Of The Tentacle and Full Throttle are still great games... Well written and high production values.

[Misfit]

Knights and Bikes is amazing fun! Love Double Fines work anyway. The LucasArts remasters are also a welcome addition... Day Of The Tentacle and Full Throttle are still great games... Well written and high production values.

I stopped playing it after 30 mins so I could play next weekend co-op with one of the kids. I suspect that will make it even better.

And I find the theme both a horrible noise and an addictive earworm!

"I WANNA RIDE MY BIKE.."

[Misfit]

Thing that always frustrates me about the Sony controllers is they bring a showcase demo out for all the features (Astrobot for example). Then we hardly ever see anything implemented as well going forward. Hopefully we'll see some good use of the unique features of the PS5 controller this time!

Yes, exactly what I was getting at. Even Spiderman basically just uses it as a normal rumble (the Verge console review I just watch basically covered the console and these two games).

We may be proven wrong and I do hope so. But how many games used the touchpad/motion in the dual shock? How many games used the touch surface on the back of the Vita? And these are features that were there as standard, not a peripheral a lot won't have.

The Dual Sense sounds like it could be really good with VR. Just a small point that there isn't any VR...

Yes my choice for a Series X was a way to experience games at the same level without having to spend £1K upwards on my PC. Also all the games will be optimised for the Xbox architecture anyway as its a known thing. Always feel the PC is underutilised at times or software isn't written as well as it could be so not very well optimised with the expectation you just upgrade hardware. Saying that a PC build is lasting longer and longer these days. My current GPU is 5 years old and still runs pretty much everything at 1440p 60fps. Impressive really... Guess this is due mainly because the last batch of consoles were so underpowered in respect to your average PC setup.

All good points.

I think it's worth waiting on the expensive graphics card too right now. Give a little time for the AMD/Nvidia dust to settle as it seems the gaps have really closed.

[VNVObit]

All good points.

I think it's worth waiting on the expensive graphics card too right now. Give a little time for the AMD/Nvidia dust to settle as it seems the gaps have really closed.

the cost of PC gaming sent me back to consoles and the step up at present is incredibly expensive with GPUs over £1k alone (not that I really need that but...)

will avoid day one this time despite being an early adopter in the past as not seeing enough truly exclusive games (and AC Valhalla review mentioned a. lot of bugs so probably worth letting things settle down before taking the plunge)

[MattyP]

So with the addition of EA Play decided to do the Xbox Gold stack and convert to GPU trick. Only managed to stack a couple of subs but all sorted until March 2023 now.

Thought why not. Just invested in a Series X and have a PC. Predominantly use Xbox/PC as a gaming device anyway so makes sense. Already had my moneys worth out of GPU over the past few years anyway and always found something to play. So thats me then... Probably won't ever buy another game anywhere again now. Well other than VR games on Oculus/Steam and some indie titles of course....

Jeez this is insanely good value... So much choice here.

If anyone is wondering. I have done the trick before of converting the remainder of my Gold sub to a GPU for £1. Trick is to let your Gold sub lapse. Buy some 12 month Gold cards from CDKeys (for example at £39.99 each). Keep adding the codes. Then you will be told when you sub to GPU for a £1 your remaining Gold sub will be converted to Game Pass Ultimate.

Had a problem stacking three successive 12 month cards for some reason (think I kept getting a month Gold free with every card which took me over the three year limit with the final card. So just added it to my youngests account and converted that. He's going to be impressed when he wakes up tomorrow and realises he has Gold until Jan 2022!.... and Game Pass Ultimate too! Might drag him away from Fortnite at least. He might even play some Golf With Friends with me....

Loving the Series X by the way. Think its the best Xbox MS have actually made so far. Lovely bit of kit. Sits there looking like a monolith out of 2001 and its sooooo quiet. Also the whole experience of setting it up was fantastic as was actually opening the package... very Apple like. Love it... nice touches and well done MS. Well done. Also nice to see my whole back-catalogue of Xbox digital content appear before my eyes for downloading. (right back to Hexic which I got pre-installed on my launch 360 all those years ago!). All seemless. Very impressed here.

Oh and Space Giraffe is in there too... Wonder if LS will patch it to 4K....

[Deckard]

For me it’s design is beyond terrible - it’s like they gave up and it’s huge (although admittedly the ps5 is too) - there is nowhere near my tv it could sit/fit so it would have to sit in another corner with a long hdmi under the carpet .....gaming wise though with all the freebies it’s very appealing.

[Misfit]

For me it’s design is beyond terrible - it’s like they gave up and it’s huge (although admittedly the ps5 is too) - there is nowhere near my tv it could sit/fit so it would have to sit in another corner with a long hdmi under the carpet .....gaming wise though with all the freebies it’s very appealing.

It's actually much smaller than I expected when I got it out the box. With its square shape it doesn't have the depth of the normal consoles.

Of course, that shape means it doesn't fit into normal places.

We put it in the bookcase not far from the TV, luckily I had a good long HDMI cable to hand. It all looks pretty neat as it's quite anonymous (may consider a white skin for it at some point)

The PS5 will go in the playroom and that is lucky, as no way would it fit in the TV cabinet slot on its side and its height is way too big for the bookcase. It's also ugly and plasticky which will be ok in the playroom when it stands by the TV, but would have been crap in the living room.

[Deckard]

Whenever I get one of them it will somewhere hidden with a long HDMI which means the 10p they both spent on design will look seriously like money badly spent.

[MattyP]

Quite like the Xbox Series X design.. kind of looks like a mini-version of my Fractal Design case my PC components are housed in.

It's actually not that big. Same size as a Gamecube in two dimensions at least! Depends where you sit your console I guess. It just on a bookshelf here so all good.

It could have been far worse.....(PS5 looking at you...)

Nice teardown of the internals of a retail unit. Nice design like the metal chassis that everything is bolted too. Doesn't look like they've cut any corners. Really compact design...

[MattyP]

First game I actually played on this was... Space Giraffe this morning after everything downloaded! Looks rather nice with HDR applied...

[Deckard]

Yeah funny enough I had a game the other day - still fucking love it.

[MattyP]

Yeah funny enough I had a game the other day - still fucking love it.

Love it... I'm rubbish at... but I love it.